Court Review: Volume 38, Issue 3 - On Judicial Independence Under Pressure

Although our legal system is the envy of much of the world, we hear much criticism in our own country of lawyers and judges. But we should take real pride in the contribution of judges and lawyers to the formation of our country. Of the 55 delegates to amend the Articles of Confederation, which we now call the Constitutional Convention, 60% were lawyers or judges. Throughout the succeeding years, lawyers and judges have guided the continuing development of our system of government. I stress continuing development because it is not something like climbing a hill when we can say, “Ahhah! We have achieved the objective.” It is more like adjusting a system of governance to the changing times, indeed, in this era it is very rapidly changing times, with the breathtaking advances in science and technology and our dependence on a global econom

Court Review: Volume 38, Issue 3 - On Judicial Independence Under Pressure

Although our legal system is the envy of much of the world, we hear much criticism in our own country of lawyers and judges. But we should take real pride in the contribution of judges and lawyers to the formation of our country. Of the 55 delegates to amend the Articles of Confederation, which we now call the Constitutional Convention, 60% were lawyers or judges. Throughout the succeeding years, lawyers and judges have guided the continuing development of our system of government. I stress continuing development because it is not something like climbing a hill when we can say, “Ahhah! We have achieved the objective.” It is more like adjusting a system of governance to the changing times, indeed, in this era it is very rapidly changing times, with the breathtaking advances in science and technology and our dependence on a global econom

The Ninth Circuit Should Not Be Split

The Ninth Circuit Should Not Be Spli

A Split by Any Other Name ...

We applaud the contribution that the Commission on Structural Alternatives for the Federal Courts of Appeals (White Commission) has made to the public debate regarding how the federal courts of appeals can cope with the demands of ever increasing caseloads and no new judicial resources. The White Commission has conscientiously discharged its challenging assignment in the very brief period which Congress allotted. We believe, however, that a careful review of the Commission\u27s research reveals no significant evidence of dysfunction in any court of appeals, and certainly none sufficiently severe to warrant its ultimate recommendation to restructure the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals into three autonomous adjudicative divisions. We submit that the Commission has not met its burden of persuasion for such sweeping change. Therefore, we urge Congress to authorize the Ninth Circuit, which has been the acknowledged national leader in experimenting with innovative methods of resolving large caseloads, to continue and expand upon that record of successful experimentation. In this article, we suggest that those who propose to change a successful, century-old institution must bear the burden of persuasion regarding the need for modification. In the first section of this article, we explore some of the principal concerns that the members of the Commission, as well as certain observers of the Ninth Circuit, have raised during the study process. In the second section, we show that, by standard measures of judicial administration and performance, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is operating as well as or better than the other courts of appeals which were not the focus of the White Commission\u27s recommendations. The next section reviews how the untested restructuring proposed by the Commission will cause more problems than it was intended to fix. Finally, in the fourth section, we offer a constructive alternative approach that the Ninth Circuit has already implemented. We examine the work of the Ninth Circuit\u27s Evaluation Committee, which is developing innovative solutions to address many of the same concerns that the Commission sought to alleviate through its restructuring proposal. Through more modest modifications to court operations, the Ninth Circuit will be able to maintain its flexibility and adaptability in order to meet the caseload demands of the next millennium. We conclude by suggesting that Congress authorize the Ninth Circuit to continue experimenting with measures that promise to enhance court operations

Ninth Circuit: The Gender Bias Task Force

In 1990, the federal courts of the Ninth Circuit began to examine the effects of gender on the business of the courts. The pioneering FinalReport of the Ninth Circuit Gender Bias Task Force1 was issued in July 1993 and the Ninth Circuit has worked to implement the task force\u27s recommendations for several years. To assist others setting forth on a similar journey, this article summarizes the circuit\u27s experience in undertaking a study of this magnitude and duration

Transport of narcotic analgesics by choroid plexus and kidney tissue in vitro

Radioactive narcotic analgesics, including morphine, dihydromorphine, nalorphine, codeine, levorphan, dextrorphan, and l-methorphan were accumulated against an apparent concentration gradient in pieces of rabbit and dog choroid plexus and in slices of dog renal cortex by a metabolically dependent mechanism. The uptake of dihydromorphine by these tissues in vitro was a saturable process depressed by low temperatures, a nitrogen atmosphere, and certain metabolic inhibitors. It also was competitively inhibited by nalorphine and by any one of several organic bases which previously have been demonstrated to be actively transported by these tissues. Under certain conditions, stimulation of dihydromorphine uptake by choroid plexus was produced by organic bases. The transport in choroid plexus of one of these organic bases, hexamethonium, was competitively inhibited by dihydromorphine. Studies with levorphan and dextrophan indicated an element of stereospecificity in their accumulation by choroid plexus. Thus it is concluded that the narcotic analgesics share the same active transport mechanisms described for a variety of organic bases that are accumulated in choroid plexus and renal tissue in vitro. Suggestions are made relative to the significance of these observations for the intact animal.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/33372/1/0000770.pd

Effects of nicotine and tyramine on contractile activity of the colon,

Contractile activity of the descending colon of the anesthetized dog was monitored with strain gage force transducers. Nicotine and tyramine caused primarily a relaxation of the circular and longitudinal muscle. A secondary stimulation frequently followed the inhibition. Adrenalectomy partially antagonized the effects of nicotine. Xylocholine and reserpine petreatment reduced the early portion of the inhibitory response to nicotine. Hexamethonium or a combination of adrenalectomy with either xycholine or reserpine pretreatment abolished the effects of nicotine. The effects of tyramine were antagonized by cocaine and reserpine-pretreatment. Tolazoline and propranolol (in combination) reduced the effects of both nicotine and tyramine. We conclude that both nicotine and tyramine relaxed the colon by releasing catecholamines. Nicotine caused release from the adrenal glands and adrenergic nerve endings; tyramine produced release from the adrenergic nerve endings.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/32663/1/0000028.pd

Application of the speed-duration relationship to normalize the intensity of high-intensity interval training

The tolerable duration of continuous high-intensity exercise is determined by the hyperbolic Speed-tolerable duration (S-tLIM) relationship. However, application of the S-tLIM relationship to normalize the intensity of High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) has yet to be considered, with this the aim of present study. Subjects completed a ramp-incremental test, and series of 4 constant-speed tests to determine the S-tLIM relationship. A sub-group of subjects (n = 8) then repeated 4 min bouts of exercise at the speeds predicted to induce intolerance at 4 min (WR4), 6 min (WR6) and 8 min (WR8), interspersed with bouts of 4 min recovery, to the point of exercise intolerance (fixed WR HIIT) on different days, with the aim of establishing the work rate that could be sustained for 960 s (i.e. 4×4 min). A sub-group of subjects (n = 6) also completed 4 bouts of exercise interspersed with 4 min recovery, with each bout continued to the point of exercise intolerance (maximal HIIT) to determine the appropriate protocol for maximizing the amount of high-intensity work that can be completed during 4×4 min HIIT. For fixed WR HIIT tLIM of HIIT sessions was 399±81 s for WR4, 892±181 s for WR6 and 1517±346 s for WR8, with total exercise durations all significantly different from each other (P<0.050). For maximal HIIT, there was no difference in tLIM of each of the 4 bouts (Bout 1: 229±27 s; Bout 2: 262±37 s; Bout 3: 235±49 s; Bout 4: 235±53 s; P>0.050). However, there was significantly less high-intensity work completed during bouts 2 (153.5±40. 9 m), 3 (136.9±38.9 m), and 4 (136.7±39.3 m), compared with bout 1 (264.9±58.7 m; P>0.050). These data establish that WR6 provides the appropriate work rate to normalize the intensity of HIIT between subjects. Maximal HIIT provides a protocol which allows the relative contribution of the work rate profile to physiological adaptations to be considered during alternative intensity-matched HIIT protocols

Therapeutic Approaches Using Host Defence Peptides to Tackle Herpes Virus Infections

One of the most common viral infections in humans is caused by herpes simplex virus (HSV). It can easily be treated with nucleoside analogues (e.g., acyclovir), but resistant strains are on the rise. Naturally occurring antimicrobial peptides have been demonstrated to possess antiviral activity against HSV. New evidence has also indicated that these host defence peptides are able to selectively stimulate the innate immune system to fight of infections. This review will focus on the anti-HSV activity of such peptides (both natural and synthetic), describe their mode of action and their clinical potential